1) Field of the Invention
The invention herein relates to an improved structure universal serial bus (USB) connector female socket in which a grounding ring is disposed at the lower edge of a metal housing enclosing the connector terminals of the socket; the design of the said grounding ring enables the solid connection of the USB connector and, furthermore, strengthens signal transmission to connected peripherals, while providing for the grounding of the peripherals to prevent occurrence of electrostatic discharge (ESD).
2) Description of the Related Art
Universal serial bus (USB) connectors are now widely used as a standard digital transmission serial bus, with many computers and peripheral equipment (such as scanners, digital cameras, keyboards, and other similar peripherals) utilizing the specification for the transmission connector interface.
Since its advantages include the computer connection of different computer peripheral equipment via the same type of connector and the replacement of previous single-application connectors and the shortcomings thereof, USB connectors already provide an integrated connector function for various peripherals which not only provides for transmission speed, construction, and maintenance that is more convenient than conventional single-application connectors (such as COM1, COM2, LPT, and other connection interfaces), but the connector of this type of general-use serial bus has already become designated as a universal serial bus connector.
However, the conventional USB female socket structure consists of connection terminals externally enclosed in a metal housing with two pins at the lower end of the metal housing providing for insertion into the mounting holes of a printed circuit board and, furthermore, a soldering process is utilized to fuse the metal pins to the circuit board and thereby provide for signal and ground continuity.
Existent USB female socket specifications are only applicable to the printed circuit board and due to the fixed or portable installation requirements of some computer peripherals, an additional separate socket embodiment is required and, furthermore, since the electrical wiring connects bidirectional signals, the embodiment difficulty problem at present is how to the mount the USB female socket such that the power source signal ground line is in electrical continuity, which is the aspect improved upon by the invention herein.
The innovative feature of the improved structure USB connector female socket of the invention herein consists of a grounding ring disposed at the lower edge of a metal housing enclosing the connector terminals of the female socket, the grounding ring being utilized for the necessary fastening of the female socket body onto a metal face plate or a printed circuit board with a screw, such that the USB connector is not confined to on-circuit board only embodiments and, furthermore, the grounding ring provides for both mounting and ground signal transmission capabilities.